People seem to have been getting a bit snippy with each other as of late, still other people seem to have been getting out of control. My philosophy as far as this forum goes is a very hands-off approach - however, when people start handing out flames and insults like candy, that's when I need to step in. I've put off doing an official 'rules' list because I didn't really feel one was necessary - apparently it is, though, so here we go.

1. No Trolling: Don't come into this forum with the intent of pissing people off. Insults, flamewars, and harassment fall under this category. If you signed up and registered specifically to piss on someone else's parade, you will be banned. No warning. I'm serious about this one.

2. No Flaming: If you haven't got anything nice to say, then kindly shut the fuck up. If someone makes a thread about a character you don't like, please don't go into the thread specifically to state that you hate said character - if you haven't got anything nice or at the very least constructive to say on a thread, then don't post.

3. NO SPAMMING: Posting unwanted or unwarranted links in this forum is not allowed. If you want to link to a particularly funny comic you saw last week, go ahead. If you want to advertise your XXX!WEIGHTLOSSGUARANTEEDANDENLARGEYOURPENISTOO site, do it somewhere else.

4. NO FLOODING: Flooding is a term used in IRC, wherein one person keeps posting line after line after line of text without letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. People, we have IM programs for a reason. Hell, there's even a nifty free PM feature that comes with these forums. If you find yourself on a back-and-forth conversation with one poster for more than a few posts on the board, TAKE IT TO PM OR IM. This goes for the game thread as well - the whole point of the prediction thread is that it's supposed to be an entertaining challenge guessing who will come in next; simply posting the name of the other person you're talking to, and them posting your name in return back and forth and back and forth like a ping-pong match is not only no fun, but it wrecks the good time other people were having.

5. MAKE YOUR POSTS COUNT: I don't care about your postcount. Neither does that guy over there. Jesus? Jesus doesn't give a shit about your post count. It doesn't matter how many posts you make - what matters is what's *IN* them. In other words, if you're going to make a post, make it matter. Make it say something. Making 6 million one or two-word responses to people isn't funny or endearing, it makes you look like an idiot. If you've got something to say, by all means say it - but make sure that you state it clearly and concisely, and while you're at it why not bring up some points or questions for other people to debate or answer? A good example of this:

A: Angela sucks!!!!

Bad.

B: Angela isn't really very developed as a character, is she? I mean, she's been around for over a year now and we don't know anything about her family, or what she does outside of working at the toy store, if she lives on her own or with a roommate, or what she plans on doing with her life. I find myself not really liking her at all, because it's hard to relate or get into a character that doesn't even have a backstory - I mean, how is she supposed to relate to Kestrel when we don't know anything about her?

Good. That's a post with no flames. It also raises several questions for other posters to answer and debate. Please try to keep it more of the latter kind of post and less of the former.

6. SPELLING AND GRAMMAR: For christ's sakes people, you are at LEAST in high school if you're reading this strip, or you OUGHT to be. Not only that, but you've seen three comics featuring the Grammar Nazi. Do you REALLY think I want people speaking l33t and making poorly-spelled posts on my forum? If you make a post that has to be deciphered before it can be read and comprehended, most people aren't even going to bother deciphering it in the first place. Please use your common sense here - and a spellcheck.

That's it. These honestly shouldn't be hard to follow, people - they're mostly common sense. DO NOT PM ME IF SOMEONE HAS SPELLED A WORD WRONG. I don't feel like having my PM box filled with a bunch of tattletales. If someone is harassing you or making you uncomfortable, by all means PM me - THAT we can take care of.

I'm saying that two people going back and forth with one or two-word replies should take it to PM or IM, yes. You want to have an in-depth conversation that other people can hop in on and add input to, that's fine. You want to bullshit with one other poster over inconsequentials in a sentence-per-post marathon, take it to PM or IM.

Rule 5.5 -
If you're brand new to the forums, don't go overboard by posting a bunch of silly stuff or playing around with all the features from the get-go. Look around and see what the others (especially those who've gotten some quality posts up) have done. This is part my two cents and part apology to Aeire for my first post....because I did this and she took that post down so fast it made my head spin on strait. Thanks!!

"Normalcy is a delusion of the masses to help themselves think they fit in..."
"Welcome to life, enjoy the ride."

Finally! A forum with grammatical standards! It's about bloody time. I tried to get this rule put into effect on a board I mod on, but was shot down because asking that was, I guess, somehow censoring what people posted. *shrugs* I don't know. I don't care what people say, just as long as they say it in a manner that I can read without getting a migraine from trying to understand it.

TZA wrote:Finally! A forum with grammatical standards! It's about bloody time. I tried to get this rule put into effect on a board I mod on, but was shot down because asking that was, I guess, somehow censoring what people posted. *shrugs* I don't know. I don't care what people say, just as long as they say it in a manner that I can read without getting a migraine from trying to understand it.

It depends on the audience. Most of the boards frequent don't need to post rules to get their subscribers to act properly.

You've never been to the boards I've frequented, then. *snorts* Polite requests seem to go straight over a lot of heads. I don't understand what's so hard about capitolizing and using a period, but maybe I'm just highly gifted with written English and those are very hard skills to master. </sarcasm>

My bet. It's all about the 'mobile phone' generation. People get used to talking in a way that requires you to hit a button three times to get one letter, or turn caps on and off manually, and dont even get me started on punctuation... These people then come online and talk in 'mobile phone' shorthand and nobody who can use a normal keyboard knows what they're saying!